


Dented

by Azure_Lynx



Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: Clarice is important to everyone, Friendship, Gen, John is Angry and Sad, Marcos Gives Good Advice, S1E06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-11 01:30:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16466120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azure_Lynx/pseuds/Azure_Lynx
Summary: Marcos sees the giant dent in the vault door. It's not hard to put two and two together.(Takes place S1E06)





	Dented

Marcos wasn’t an idiot. He’d never had formal schooling past thirteen, yeah, but he had common sense and he knew people. You didn’t succeed in a Cartel without those kinds of smarts.

So when he saw the newest dent in the Mutant Underground Headquarters, it took him approximately zero seconds to figure out who and why. It’d been awhile since John had dented the door - the last time he could think of was over a year ago, and it’d taken a while to fix it, which seemed to teach John that it was arguably better to break things like tables if the need so arose.

Which meant this thing with Clarice was big.

He waited til John was alone to corner the man. “Hey, dumbass, what’s that about?” he asked, gesturing vaguely at the vault door. “What’d Maria ever do to you?”

“I still don’t understand why you named the vault door,” John grumbled back, clearly avoiding the question.

“To keep you from hurting her. It worked for awhile.” Marcos grinned for a split second before returning to his serious demeanor. “I’m serious, man, what happened with Clarice?”

John let out an exasperated breath, and Marcos knew talking about it was probably the last thing he wanted, but Marcos also knew that the strong, silent machismo way of dealing with things only led to more pain and dented vault doors. “Sonya put a memory in her head,” he finally admitted after Marcos stared at him long enough. “Awhile ago, back when we rescued Caitlin from those suburban assholes. Sonya did it so Clarice could open a portal, because nothing else had been working, and she wanted to save us,” he added, and Marcos was pretty sure they both knew John was making excuses.

Marcos swore once in Spanish, but forced himself to keep cool. Judgement would not help this situation. “And I suppose you found out and told Clarice, and it went badly?” he guessed.

“Not exactly.” John sat down heavily with a groan and buried his face in his hands. “I couldn’t - I didn’t know how to tell her, so I kept putting it off, and we needed her on top of her game to get Lorna back, and then I still couldn’t tell her, and then she figured it out on her own. And then she confronted me, and I said a lot of dumb shit, and now she’s gone.” He shook his head glumly. “Some leader.”

Marcos took a deep breath. “Well, you fucked up.”

John raised his head from his hands to look at Marcos ruefully. “Unhelpful, and also obvious.”

“But not,” Marcos continued, “Beyond all repair.”

“Did you just…try to make ‘FUBAR’ a reassuring statement?”

“Did it work?”

John managed a smile. “Probably not the way you’d hoped.”

“You gotta bring her back, man.” Marcos thought about Clarice, the way she’d been all-in for a cause - for a woman - she’d barely even known, how she’d put up with Marcos’ stupid lovesick fantasy plans to get Lorna back and how she’d definitely saved his and the Struckers’ lives. “She belongs with us. Besides, it’s not safe out there.”

“How do I convince her to come back?” John asked skeptically. “This isn’t exactly a quick apology and go.”

“You throw yourself at her feet, you kiss her shoes, you beg, you do whatever the fuck she wants you to do.” Marcos shrugged. “Remember that time Lorna and I almost broke up?”

“Which one?” John wise-cracked, but he nodded. Of course he remembered. “It’s not the same, man, she’s your girl.”

Marcos decided he was gonna let that one go for now. John was a grown man, he could figure it out on his own. He shrugged. “All I’m saying is that the same tactics applied. You fucked up; show her you’re willing to fix it.” He stared at John. “Promise me you’ll go after her.”

John swallowed thickly. “I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Historyandships on tumblr for the prompt, I had a real fun time writing this! I love their friendship; they're the ideal bros.  
> Cross-posted from tumblr cuz I figured my regulars might like to read it.


End file.
